Free gaming - what's not to love?...

“Our mission has always been to give innovative indie titles the exposure and recognition they deserve” - Meggan Scavio, Director of the Game Developers Conference

For those of you unfamiliar with OnLive, allow me to explain. OnLive harnesses the power of internet streaming and allows its users to play their favourite games without the need of an expensive console or hard copies. Instead of running a game from a disc, gamers simply stream their choice across their network, saving progress and unlockable content on the cloud network. Furthermore, the console (an optional extra; gamers can simply use a specified controller and network adapter if they want) is just a quarter of the size of contemporary consoles, but offers the same quality and gaming variety as its consumer brethren.

To promote this fresh device, OnLive is offering its gamers the opportunity to play a total of 16 current IGF nominees and honourable mention games for 30 minutes each for free until March 11th, 2012. After playing these games, players can then vote for their favourites at www.facebook.com/onlive with the winner being announced the Monday following the 2012 Independent Games Festival.

Come March 5th and the deal becomes sweeter than a Labrador caring for a kitten as OnLive will also be placing previously honoured IGF games on sale for 75% off, with free instant demos available for all, and these games can be played on anything from a HDTV to the most portable of smart phones, with no disc and no download necessary; just an OnLive account and an internet connection.

The following list is the independent games that are being made available for free to the customers:

Atom Zombie Smasher - Blendo Games
Be Good - DigiPen Institute of Technology
Botanicula - Amanita Design
Dear Esther - The Chinese Room
Dustforce - Hitbox Team
English Country Tune - Stephen Lavelle
Frozen Synapse - Mode 7 Games
FTL - Justin Ma and Matthew Davis
Lume - State of Play Games
Nitronic Rush - DigiPen Institute of Technology
Once Upon a Spacetime - RMIT
POP - Rob Lach
SpaceChem - Zachtronics Industries
To the Moon - Freebird Games
Toren - Swordtales
WAY - CoCo & Co.

To continue to debate, gamers can discuss and rate the titles at OnLive's Facebook page website and express anything they want about the games they have been playing. They can also head to OnLive’s voyeur-esque Arena to watch the games being played live, getting a window into the experience from the sidelines. The OnLive Indie Showcase will conclude on March 11.

So, what are you waiting for? Go check out OnLive and get gaming people!

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